JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Mount Ibu, a volcano in Indonesia's North Maluku province, erupted on Monday, spewing thick grey ash and dark clouds 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into the sky for five minutes, officials said.
“The volcanic earthquakes are still intense so there is a potential for a future eruption,” Hendra Gunawan, chief of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said.
After an eruption on Friday, the center raised the alert level for the volcano from 2 to 3, the second-highest level, which widens the radius of the area which should be vacated. Local authorities have prepared evacuation tents, but no evacuation order has been reported yet.
Officials advised residents and tourists not to conduct any activities within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of Mount Ibu's crater. More than 13,000 people live within a 5-kilometer (3-mile) radius of the northern side of the crater, Gunawan said.
The 1,325-meter (4,347-foot) volcano is on the northwest coast of the remote island of Halmahera.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
In this photo released by the Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center of the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (PVMBG-ESDM), Mount Ibu spews volcanic materials into the air during an eruption in West Halmahera, Indonesia, Monday, May 13, 2024. The volcano in Indonesia's North Maluku province, erupted on Monday, spewing thick grey ash and dark clouds 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into the sky for five minutes, officials said. (PVMBG-ESDM via AP)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Jury selection began Monday in the federal trial of three former Memphis officers charged with violating the civil rights of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man whose fatal beating was caught on police cameras, triggering protests and calls for police reform.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith have pleaded not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering.
Nichols was pulled over in January 2023 and ran from police after he was yanked out of his car. Officers caught up with Nichols and pummeled him in a Memphis neighborhood, police video showed.
Jurors will be selected from a pool of about 200 people. The trial is anticipated to last three to four weeks. Nichols' mother and stepfather were in court Monday for the trial's outset.
Nichols, who was Black, died in a hospital on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after he was kicked, punched and hit with a police baton. Police video released later that month showed five officers, who also are Black, beating Nichols as he yelled for his mother about a block from his house. Video also showed the officers milling about and talking with each other as Nichols sat on the ground, struggling with his injuries.
The officers said Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, but Memphis' police chief has said there was no evidence to substantiate that claim.
Nichols worked for FedEx, and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography.
An autopsy report showed Nichols died from blows to the head and that the manner of death was homicide. The report described brain injuries and cuts and bruises to the head and other areas.
The three officers now facing trial, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., were fired after Nichols' death for violating Memphis Police Department policies. They had been members of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion unit, which was disbanded after Nichols' death.
Shortly after their dismissal, the five officers were charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. They were then indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2023.
Mills and Martin have each pleaded guilty in federal court and could testify in the trial. A trial date in state court has not been set.
Former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley, right, arrives at the federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
People wait to enter the federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Former Memphis police officer Justin Smith arrives at the federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Former Memphis police officer Tadarrius Bean, second from right, arrives at the federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
RowVaughn Wells, left, and Rodney Wells, parents of Tyre Nichols, arrive at the federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Former Memphis police officer Tadarrius Bean, right, arrives at the federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Former Memphis police officer Justin Smith arrives at the federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley arrives at the federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Former Memphis police officer Tadarrius Bean, left, and his lawyer John Keith Perry walk towards the entrance of a federal courthouse before the start of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)
FILE - RowVaughn Wells rests on her husband's shoulder Rodney Wells, the parents of Tyre Nichols, during a news conference after a former Memphis Police Department officer pleaded guilty to civil rights violations in the 2023 fatal beating of their son, Aug. 23, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - This combo of images provided by the Memphis, Tenn., Police Department shows, top row from left, officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, and bottom row from left, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. (Memphis Police Department via AP, File)
FILE - The screen at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans honors Tyre Nichols before an NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards, Jan. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)
FILE - The image from video released on Jan. 27, 2023, by the City of Memphis, shows Tyre Nichols during a brutal attack by five Memphis police officers on Jan. 7, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. (City of Memphis via AP, File)
